Good girl!

Our wonderful Parents As Teachers educator loaned us a book by Karen Katz to help us with the vampire issues.  In the book, it says we don't bite our friends.....what can we bite?  Apples!  Isla's been "reading" it to us.  There's also a page on hitting (which we also need), kicking, spitting.... 

Today my brother acted like he was going to bite Isla.  I told him we can't  play bite.  Isla and I told him that we don't bite our friends, we bite apples.  This afternoon, I wasn't thinking and as I put Isla's sweater on her, I ated like I was going to pull her hand through the sleeve with my teeth.

"NO!  No bite!  We bite APPLES!" 

Good girl! 

What happened?

Where did December go?  I can't believe it is Christmas Eve already.  Isla's biting has gotten some better--no reports in the past week of her trying to chomp people.  She did hit a kid at school this week though.  In her defense though, after spending an hour at daycare for their Christmas party this week, I was ready to hit the kid too.  I think part of her problem is that she's getting frustrated and bored.  The kids in her class are all younger than she is by several months. Those months are really important in terms of what they can do at this age.  Luckily they're letting her spend more time in the other toddler room right now and there's a little boy in there a couple days older than she is, and until Friday, her friend A who is a couple days younger. 

A starts Isla's new daycare the week before she does so Isla will have a friend there already!  I'm excited about her starting.  There are a couple people at the old daycare that we'll miss, but one of our favorite teachers who left our current daycare a few months ago is now working at the new one so she'll know one of the teachers already too.  The day before we start we'll go by and let her play awhile.  Her friend A did that one day this week and her mom said all the kids just came up and started playing with her. 

Christmas plans suddenly seem up in the air.  Mom was sick this morning so TNT may be staying with us tomorrow night and having the family Christmas here.  Hopefully it was just something mom ate (although Pop was sick earlier this week so it's probably the flu).  Not that I mind having Christmas or TNT here, I just don't want Mom to miss things! 

Birthday plans are also underway.  I'll send out the invitations next week and look for more decorations, what to do about cupcakes, etc.  My cousin already has our cookie order for Elmo and Abby Cadabby cookies.

Overall, sleeping is going better than it was.  She'll still wake up early (4ish) some days, but will typically go back to sleep pretty easily if I lay down with her.  She knows she can't get out of bed until her clock turns yellow so we're staying in her room until 6. 

Words and language continue to amaze me.  Sentences are whole and 4-6 words long.  At the same time, she's having episodes where she just wants to fuss so we're working on "using our words."  Yesterday she was fusses about something, I told her to use her words and she started saying "please."  Great word, but please what???

Her attention span is amazing too.  Miss S came one day this week and brought a plastic tub of dried beans and she played with those the whole PAT session.  I bought more beans later in the day and she played another 40 minutes with them.

Last week we decorated cookies with our play date friends.  I have pictures I need to post from that.  I have other pictures I need to post to and I'm sure I'll have more after Christmas. 

After naptime today, I think we'll take a walk, have a bath, then get ready for the 4:00 service at church.

More later.

The Vampire....

Was thwarted by her teachers at daycare the past two days.  I'm not sure yesterday's teacher even KNEW she'd tried to bite a kid Monday also, but I still felt like she was chastitizing ME, even though she said it's a normal part of development.  So we're talking a lot about playing nice with friends, you only bite food, etc. 

On a positive note, this morning I realized that not only is Isla putting words together, she's putting sentences together!  I asked if she wanted me to take her bowl this morning and she said "No.  Not Yet.  I'm not done!"

Sleeping, sauce, and other stuff.....

A few weeks ago, Sleeping Beauty tried to climb out of her crib. We converted her crib to a toddler bed and that seemed okay for about a week.  Then she decided that she didn't like the toddler bed.  Did. not. like. at. all.  She slept in the floor most of last week.  Well, when she did sleep.  She was up even earlier than usual, fought going to sleep, and was generally cranky.  Momma decided something had to change.  Friday I bought a full-size mattress, Minnie Mouse sheets and comforter, and rearranged her room.  Her Tot Clock was also delivered Friday.  So far, so good.  We heard a "thud" around 4 Saturday morning and I laid down with her when I put her back to bed.  She woke up a couple minutes before 6 and we talked about waiting for the clock to change.  She seems to be getting the hang of the Tot Clock--yesterday we had to lay in bed for quiet time for a long time after her nap because the clock hadn't turned yellow yet and when I asked her the color we were waiting for, she said "yellow, yellow please" like she was asking the clock to be yellow.  This morning it was after 6 when she woke up so the clock was already yellow.  Nap time went well today but she was up about 15 minutes before the clock changed AND Grandma and PopPop came in right when she got up.  I told her she had to go check the clock and she started crying but when PopPop went in her room with her to lay down for the remainder of rest time, she was fine.  After a few minutes I went in and overrode the clock and let her get up.  Hopefully her new sleep isn't just a fluke and things will continue on this course.

For some reason, Isla started calling her diaper rash cream "sauce."  When I'm changing her, she'll grab the butt paste and say "sauce."  I'll put some on her and ask her if it feels better.  I didn't ask her one day last week and she looked at me and asked me "feel better?"  She also calls lotion sauce and likes having sauce put on her hands--of course, a little on each hand.  She likes to put it on her knees, regardless of whether or not she's wearing clothes and to put it on her dolls. 

Another one of those things I always ask is if she's ready to go when I pick her up at daycare.  One day last week I hadn't asked and she looked at me "ready go?"  Such a sweetheart.  I can't believe how much her language has exploded in the last few weeks and how well she's putting sentences together.  She told P this morning "night-night.  Daddy, you can go back to sleep." 

There have been a few times my sweetheart has bitten me.  I haven't been too concerned because it has been limited to me and it has been times when we've been playing and close and she just seems to get too excited.  Until today.  When we picked her up at the Reign Forest after church, S told me she'd bitten a little boy.  Twice.  One time leaving marks.  Ugh.  I don't know the little boy--not sure if that's better or worse.  Not sure what to do--think I'll email our PAT person for advice.  Tonight she got excited while we were playing and bit my shoulder.  When I said "ouch" she realized what she'd done and laid her head on my shoulder and patted.  So empathy is developing. 

Sense of humor...

On the way to daycare yesterday morning, Isla started absolutely cackling.  I looked in the rear view mirror to see her holding her baby doll with it's bottle up against the top of it's head.  And Isla thought this was hilarious. 

Our little evil genius....

Isla has folding doors on her closet in her room.  Frequently a clothes hanger hangs from the knob on the door.  A few months ago, she realized that even though she couldn't reach the knob, if there's a hanger there, she can pull it to open the door. 

Fast forward to yesterday.  I had some hangers sitting on her little table in the kitchen to send home with Grandma.  Isla wanted to go outside.  I looked over and she had one of the hangers on the door knob, pulling on it.  Thankfully this experiment didn't work. 

Funny girl....

I wish there was a way to capture all the funny little things you do, Isla.  All the silly, loving, smart things we see each day.  Like how when we mention Winston you know you're going to get a sticker for her shirt and get your picture taken.  Like sometimes when you see the camera, you automatically pose and say "cheeese."  Like the way you look at us and try to say "rollercoaster" and give us a kiss when you want us to push you up in the air. Like the way you say Mo' Moush for Mickey Mouse and how excited you get when he comes on tv.  Like the way you look at Daddy and point to Momma's mouth if he gives you a good-bye kiss before he gives Momma one.  Like the way you were trying to push Momma and Daddy together on the couch the other night cause you wanted us to kiss.  Like the way you line up your stuffed animals in front of your bed and want them just so.  Like the way I heard you smooching in the back seat while I was driving this weekend as you kissed a page that the gang from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on it.  Like the way you get so excited to see Pop Pop.  Like the way you point to the floor and tell us to sit when you want us in the floor to play with us.  Like the way you dance to music on tv and tell us to dance with you.  Like the way insist on walking at times and if there are 2 people with you, you want someone to take each hand, but you usually take them on the wrong sides so you're standing backwards between us.  Like..........

I love you funny girl. 

Winston....

Wow....22 months!  I can't believe you're almost 2 Baby Girl!

Words

In the days after the last post, it seemed that we'd missed half her vocabulary when we listed out the words she uses.  Plus she's putting words together more and more all the time.  "Oh no.  Made a mess!"  has been her longest combination I think.  She's also reasoning things out--she knows Mimi went to Washington so when Grandma was telling her that George Washington is on her dollar, she started talking about Mimi.  And when momma was talking about messes today, she started saying diaper and took one to Grandma cause we talk about her messing in her diaper (she hadn't at that point though). 

I decided this weekend that I want one of our Christmas traditions to be to buy her a new ornament each year that represents something she's interested in.  I found a nice wooden Mickey Mouse ornament for this year.  I'll either get a special box for her ornaments where I can also keep a list of each year's ornament or I'll see if I can date it somewhere discretely.  I'm thinking the box and list is a better idea than writing on the ornaments.

P had a lecture in St. Louis Friday afternoon and Saturday morning so Isla and I went to St. Louis with him.  We hung out at the hotel Friday afternoon, met Aunt Khaki for dinner, and Saturday morning did a little shopping.  Isla was chatting up everyone--waiters, bellhops, the check-in clerks at our hotel.... I especially liked it when we were sitting on a bench near the hotel where P's lecture was and Isla was playing an animal puzzle game on my phone.  Some man walked up on the way into his gym and Isla started babbling something--he stopped, understood "animals,"  looked at what she was showing him on the phone and talked to her a second about animals.  When P was done we went to the zoo.  She loves all the animals, but the monkeys, apes, and zebras were especially favored yesterday.  Two gorillas and an orangutan sat right up against the glass in front of us and the hippos kept swimming right in front of us too.  We went to Build a Bear and she picked out a giraffe and made him.  We got out of the store and gave it to her and she says "monkey?"  Guess there are reasons you don't leave big decisions up to toddlers. 

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Elmo are still favorites too.  I think she'd prefer if all the other characters on Sesame Street were fired so it could be all Elmo all the time.  Poor Big Bird. 

More later-


We took our 22 month pictures with Winston today.  I think we'll have some good ones--I'll try to download my pictures and upload them here once Baby Girl goes to bed.

Pun'kins!

On a related note, does anyone know how to get Sharpie out of a pink sweater?



Discovery Playhouse and Words

We've spent some time at the Discover Playhouse the past 2 Friday afternoons.  Isla loves playing on the slides, with the toys, the books....everything.  Last week she climbed up the slide, slid down, stood...and fell flat on her face.  Twice.  After that, she'd go to the top and yell "Momma, catch!"  and wouldn't silde down until I was squatting at the bottom.  This week told me to catch her once, but when she came down, she twisted and stopped herself before hitting the floor at the bottom.  She was SO proud of herself!  She still hasn't explored the whole place--last week I made her leave the toddler play area to go explore other things but this week, I let her play there as long as she wanted, then she went to explore a little bit.  She hasn't even seen half the place yet so I'm sure we'll get lots of use out of our year pass. 

She's really into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Elmo these days.  She'll pick up the remote, bring it to me, and tell me which she wants to watch.  I try to limit the television to first thing in the morning and at the very end of the day.  She's kinda slow to get going in the morning (even though she's up early) and lazing around watching TV seems to be a good thing.

I've been meaning to try to make a list of all the words she knows, but I can't get them all down.  One morning last week I wrote them down as she said them but I was at 30 words by the time she finished breakfast and after that, I couldn't write as she said them.  P and I are going to see how many we can think of:  egg, cheese, milk, bowl, plate, spoon, cup, pan (to put her egg in when we cook it), waffle, snack, juice, down, done, hot dog, hot, rice, sausage, avocado, eat, up, down, mouse, boo-boo (means fart), tractor, walk, Momma, Daddy, back, book, read, Mimi, PopPop, bed, night-night, baby, blanket, Jonathan (or Johnnie), Grandma, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pete, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Elmo, Big Bird, Ernie, cookie, more, please, thank you, light, blocks, one, two, three, chair, couch, house, nice, green, blue, white, Ashlee, shoes, socks, ball, swing, slide, play, write, dog, giraffe, monkey, hippopotamus, owl, fish, butterfly, mine, no, chicken, Isla, pig, eyes, nose, knees, elbow, trash, hi, bye, rollercoaster, dance, bear, Sprite, diaper.  I'm sure I'll come back and add more.  She also says some 2-4 word phrases....."I want it,"  "My ____ (usually Daddy)," "So good,"  "Here you go," "See you,"  "Love you,"  "I got ____," "Night Night Jesus."  And she knows so many more words.  She loves animal books and can point out all the animals in there, show you were all her body parts are (including her dancing phlanges). 

We had parent-teacher conference at daycare this week.  Apparently Isla says "mine" a lot.  She argues with a little boy in her class.  She also pushes at them, although I don't think she meant Isla actually PUSHES the other kids--surely if she did, I would have heard about it before now.  She also said Isla LOVES the books.  This makes me happy.  In the midst of playing with all the toys and slides at the Discovery Playhouse Friday, Isla brought me some books and sat down for us to read stories.  Sometimes she'll sit for an entire story, sometimes she keeps turning pages. 

Big news of the weekend....I cleaned my car Friday (enough of a novelty in and of itself!) and turned baby girl's car seat around!  She's 22 pounds (with clothes) now.  MO law says they have to be 20 to forward face, but our car seat says 22 pounds so we've waited.  And waited.  Actually, she just hit 20 pounds at her 18 month well baby so we haven't waited very long.  She got a huge grin on her face when she got in the car Friday and jabbered all the way to the playhouse.  She must have forgotten it was turned around because when she saw it leaving the playhouse, she got really excited! 

Here are some pictures from Friday afternoon's visit to the playhouse...

Melmo meltdown

Isla's favorite toys are books.  Consistently, she'll play with her books more than anything else.  She'll bring them to us and say "read" and she's getting much better about letting us actually read stories to her.  She has many books in her room and an assortment stay in the living room, stacked on a couple of ottomans, in easy reach.  Some nights, that's all she'll play with.  One night last week, I was in the bathroom and heard a meltdown.  "MELMO!  MELMO!!!!"  Crying.  Distraught.  Much, much drama.  I came into the hallway and saw her standing at the ottomans, looking for her new favorite book that Y got her.... the one about Elmo's babysitter.  The one we left in my car the previous night.  I reassured her that it was okay, Melmo was in momma's car and we could go get him.  She continued crying until we retrieved Melmo and she knew, in fact, that he was safe.  The next day, I picked up another Melmo book from Target's Dollar Spot.

Family pics...

Love the new way to upload pics to Blogger!  So much easier and faster so I thought I'd share some of my favorite family pics.  Thanks to Hope Carroll for coming to my parents' house and shooting us all!

Winston, Minnie Mouse, and more....

Winston pictures....

So I don't actually have this month's pictures ready to upload yet.  We just got around to taking them this morning.  Momma is slipping on that 12th of the month thing.  When I told her this morning that we needed to take Winston pictures, she went in her room and starting moving the other kids from the toy chest and trying to pull Winston into the floor.  Then she handed me the white onesie and actually STOOD STILL for me to put it on her.  Then she started pointing to the montly stickers on the wall over her changing table and telling me she needed one of those.  When I got out my camera, she positioned herself in front of the bear and started posing.  But I couldn't get the lens on my camera.  Once I did and told her I was ready, she sat back down and said "CHEESE" as I started taking pictures. 

M-I-C-K-E-Y....

I was getting something out of the car tonight and Isla started saying "Mi'Mouz."  I looked down and there was a little Mickey Mouse figureine.  When we went inside I asked her if she wanted to watch Mickey Mouse on tv.  "Mi'Mouz! Mi'Mouz!"  and she went to the television and started to turn it on.  She has a Minnie Mouse doll in her room that we play with and she's been calling her Minnie for awhile, but I think it's because we call her Minnie.  Today, Mickey Mouse was a definite recognition of the commercialized cartoon.  And so it begins.

Oh, and she also knows who Elmo is and will point him out in her books. 

Isla's really big on pens and paper (or pens and clothing, the table, whatever....) these days.  We write her name with her a lot and do a sing-songy "I-S-L-A.  Isla!"  Tonight when she started writing, I asked her how to spell Isla.  She answered "IIIIIIII."  My kid is so smart!

Where'd it go?

One of Isla's favorite phrases.  Usually accompanied by upturned palms and big, wide eyes.

But I don't know where my background design went.  I clicked somewhere when I last updated and things changed.  I haven't been able to get it back quite right.  I'll keep clicking and see if I can find something I like. 

Baby Girl!

So much is going on these days and it's hard to keep up with all the changes.  Every since we went to Branson with Grandma and PopPop at the beginning of the month, the chattering has exploded.  Isla can put 2-4 words together...."where'd it go?"  "where's the pig?"  Every day there seems to be new phrases and words. 

We're still having fussy times with getting dressed and changing diapers.  I think it's mostly that she doesn't want to take the time and slow down to do such mundane things. She'd much rather look at her books (especially the animal books), color, or steal Momma's phone or the 'mote. 

Sleeping is going okay.  She cries out during the night some, but usually we check the video monitor and she hasn't really moved.  Occasionally we'll have to go check on her--last night P went in to check on her and she told him "no, no, no" and laid back down.  She let him put her blanket back on her and went back to sleep. 

She's pretty attached to the chenille blanket her godmother made her.  She wants to play with it sometimes, but doesn't really carry it around.  For the most part, it stays here but we take it to Grandma's when we spend the night there.  Grandma forgot to send it back last week and it wasn't a big deal, but this week when we had it here but it hadn't made it back to Isla's room, she didn't get to sleep when Momma remembered and took it in there. 

PopPop is still her favorite person.  We pull up into my parent's driveway and before I can even get out of the car, she starts saying PopPop.  We'll go inside and she'll go to my mom but immediately start looking over her shoulder for PopPop.

She's also a big fan of her Mimi, but P's mom moved back to Washington state this week.  Isla's really going to miss her.

Grandma's been teaching Isla things.  You can ask Isla who she loves and she'll start naming Momma, Daddy, MiMi, PopPop....  Sometimes you get the whole list, sometimes she sticks with one or two.  A few days ago I asked her and she said "Momma."  I asked who else?  She said "him" and pointed to her Daddy. 

So sleepy!  Early bedtime--more updates later!!

And more pictures...

Weekend pictures....

Great Weekend!

We took Grandma and PopPop to Branson over the weekend. Isla did so well for the long car ride! She kept putting them in the backseat next to her and jabbered and jabbered and jabbered. We stopped in Springfield at the zoo. It's a fairly small zoo, but very clean, nice, and not crowded at all. Plus they had electric scooters for rent so my mom was able to stay off her feet. We all had a great time--I'll post pictures later.

The second day of our trip we noticed a HUGE difference in Isla's speech and language. She was parroting everything my parents said, putting together new combinations of words, and speaking more clearly. She even got hippopotamus and kookaburra out fairly clearly! Of course, "PopPop" was said many times. She did well while we did some shopping and sat still for the first half of a variety comedy show we went to see. The magician in the show kept letting birds fly overhead so she LOVED that. After intermission, we moved to the back which was a good thing--no birds in the second half. She and I had to leave the theater 10 minutes before the end of the 2 hour show. I was so thrilled with how well she behaved!

Sunday we went to Butterfly Palace and she got to see many butterflies flying all around us. The place was really neat, but overpriced. Still, she had fun and we got some great pictures.

Today we were back in the car all morning again--she slept almost half the way home but before that, she kept wanting momma to sing more and more. She's learned gestures for Wheels on the Bus at daycare and also likes If You're Happy and You Know It. She tries to sing along to other songs which is so cute. Oh, and I've started to sing Apples and Bananas to her while she's eating and she's actually eating those two fruits now! Yeah!

One thing she's doing that I'm not so thrilled about is asking for the TV to be on. Some mornings when she's up too early, I've turned on her videos so she'll sit and watch so we can stay in bed a little longer and she has quiet time. She really only seems to want to watch when she's tired, but I'm not sure I like the idea of her asking for that. I guess we'll just watch and make sure she doesn't watch too much TV and make sure we turn it off during normal play time.

Tomorrow it's back to work for momma. I've gotten some of my things to do list done in the past month, but not everything. I think some more structure will be good for me. I'm going to work Tuesdays and Thursdays. This Wednesday it's field trip to the fair with daycare.